A former high school water-polo coach filed a discrimination complaint against Charter Oak Unified School District and claimed he was fired last month because he is gay.

Mitch Stein, who worked as an assistant water-polo coach at Charter Oak High during the summer, said Principal Kathleen Wiard terminated him after receiving an anonymous letter complaining about photos found on his Facebook and Myspace pages.

Stein said the letter included two photos, one of him posing with two drag queens and the other of him about to eat a corn dog. According to the complaint, the letter's author called Stein "unfit to coach" and threatened to go to the school board if he was not fired immediately.

Stein said he promised to have the pictures taken down, but he said Wiard was adamant that he be fired. Wiard did not return calls requesting comment.

"The reaction to that letter, in my opinion, was homophobic," Stein said.

Stein's attorney, Brad Kane, said the next day Stein was called back to the school for a meeting with Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Terry Stanfill.

According to the discrimination complaint, Stanfill told Stein he was being fired for publicly posting "offensive" photos, not because of his sexual orientation.

"When someone tells you 'Oh, by the way, we're not doing it because you're gay,' there's some question," Kane said. "It appears to be at this stage sexual-orientation-based discrimination."

The district superintendent denied any discrimination occurred.

"I can say, and so can any other superintendent, that there are laws that protect - that ensure - that we do not discriminate against any individual," Superintendent Mike Hendricks said.

Because of privacy laws, Hendricks said he was unable to discuss the specific reason why Stein was fired, but he did say it had nothing to do with his sexuality.

"We do not discriminate against anyone," he said.

Stein is a Charter Oak alumnus whose daughter is a freshman at the school and is on the water-polo and swim teams. He said his firing brought an end to what had been a great summer of coaching.

"It was perfect. My team was undefeated, I applied and received a Kohls (department store) grant for the swim team (and water polo team). I put together a fundraiser where we painted the pool deck," Stein said.

After Stein was fired, word spread quickly across Facebook and other social networking sites. A Facebook account titled "Wipe out Homophobia on Facebook" listed district phone numbers and urged people to call them and demand Stein be reinstated.

On Sept. 7, Kane sent the district a letter demanding Stein be reinstated, but the district has been unwilling to budge.

"We've made a decision," Hendricks said. "I'm not aware of any movement or decision to reverse that."

Kim Cory, one of the water-polo parents who wrote a letter of support for Stein, said she can't imagine why the district wouldn't bring him back.

"I think he's a fabulous coach," she said. "From what I saw, he was very involved in their teaching."

Cory said she's seen the photos in question. While she described them as "dumb," she said they weren't offensive and certainly not grounds for termination in her mind.

"I don't think it was appropriate action," she said. "I think the person that had a problem should approach the head coach and talk about it."

Greg Ortega, another parent who wrote a letter of support for Stein, stopped short of saying Stein was fired for being gay. However, he said he believes "politics" were involved in the decision.

"Does the punishment fit the crime? Probably not," Ortega said.

Ortega said he hasn't seen the photos, but he wondered why Stein left them where they could be found.

"Mitch shouldn't have had them up is what it amounts to," he said. "(But) poor taste in my opinion is not a reason to get fired. It's more of a reason for discipline."